Shelby County to work with Texas Broadband Development for area connectivity

SHELBY COUNTY, Texas (KTRE) - Shelby County authorities held a special meeting Wednesday morning to consider working side-by-side with the Texas Broadband Development Office to bring better connectivity to the area. “It’s the first step in developing broadband on a stable level here in our region,” said Deep East Texas Council of Governments Assistant Executive Director Andrew Harmon. Harmon presented commissioners with a pitch for a broadband planning committee. “Our whole region has been so busy recovering from the flooding and disaster we’ve had. There hasn’t been a whole lot of time to deal with broadband planning efforts,” said Harmon. He explained the technical assistance program by the Texas Broadband Development Office is aimed at assisting counties with broadband planning and consulting. The county will not be required to pay for the services. “They won’t have any billing efforts that are going to be on the county’s part. They will be directly working with the county, delivering their studies and findings,” explained Harmon. “That’s one thing I would love to see happen to make it available to the low-income and the people that live so far out in the country. It’s just hard,” said County Judge Allison Harbison.